Border cities struggle to find librarians – (because people “feel estranged in the bilingual, bicultural” cities?)

“Every library along the border has had at least one opening for a librarian in the past two years. Some had as many as six, according to the University of North Texas, which runs the Rio Grande Initiative grant program to train librarians in the region.

Libraries that manage to recruit from outside the Valley find it hard to retain people who feel estranged in the bilingual, bicultural, and often low-income area, Speer library Director Rusty Dove said. No local universities offer the required post-graduate courses.

“I guess you could call Mission a Tex-Mex city,” Dove said. “Its a different environment, and most people want to stay where they grow up. To access a degree individuals previously had to go outside the Valley, and they just weren’t able to afford to do that.”

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